The Best of Streaming Media East 2004 Part2

Tracking the Next Wave of Enterprise Applications

Despite predictions a year ago that the entertainment industry would spearhead early adoption of new streaming applications, enterprise is what’s pushing the evolution of technologies, applications, and business models, and more specifically, rich media content. Video alone wasn’t enough to drive streaming media, agreed the panelists, who included Sonic Foundry VP of strategic solutions James Dias, Bright-Talk cofounder Paul Heald, and Tivella VP of business development Dima Itkis. But now that the technology to deliver rich media is there, enterprise streaming initiatives are running into troubles creating high-quality, effective content.

James Dias, Sonic Foundry’s VP of strategic solutions and alliances, firmly believes that this stems from two basic problems. "Creating streaming is still too complicated. Where’s our orange button," he asked, arguing that preparing content for streaming should be as simple as pressing a button on a copy machine. That complexity leads to the second hurdle: all too often, it’s an organization’s technical staff, and not its communications professionals, who end up taking control of content creation. "Those people might understand streaming technology, but they don’t necessarily understand the basics of creating high-quality content," Dias said. All the panelists agreed that the future of enterprise streaming lies in re-engineering content for streaming delivery—for instance, creating training programs that alternate passive listening and interactivity—and not necessarily in the technology itself.

For a report on the Content track sessions, see "The Best of Streaming Media East 2004, Part 1."